


When the Bough Breaks

by hollyhock13



Series: Whumptober 2019 [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Bruce is “dead” so character death, Concussions, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Prompt: Delirium, Prompt: “Don’t Move”, Red Robin #12, Suicidal Ideation, Whumptober 2019, but it’s not exactly tied up in a nice little bow either, idk how graphic the violence is but it’s definitely there and not just implied, not really if you’ve read the comic, not really more like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-11-23 01:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20884187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollyhock13/pseuds/hollyhock13
Summary: Tim saved everyone Bruce loved, except maybe himself





	1. The Cradle Will Fall

**Author's Note:**

> As always, a huge thanks to [@Ursapharoh15](%E2%80%9C) for inspiring me and helping me find a title (the hardest part of any project) and for being an all-around great person.
> 
> Credit for some of the major themes goes to @syntactition over on Tumblr for breaking my heart.
> 
> Also, some of Tim’s thoughts/lines in this fic come directly from Red Robin Issue 12, and the fight is described from that scene as well. That being said, it is also very much my own interpretation of the scene. Enjoy!

“I’m not Batman. I have  friends .”

Even as Tim says it, he starts to question his own words.  _Does he have friends?_ He shakes his head a bit to clear it. Of course he does. They’re here, aren’t they?

Well, not  _here_,  here, which is a whole new problem as Ra’s lunges with a sword. Tim counters with his staff just in time to avoid becoming minced meat. The little smirk Ra’s gives him is enough to tell Tim he’s made a mistake.

The consequence for that mistake comes in the form of a kick to the face. Tim falls to the ground and only narrowly dodged the next blow from Ra’s sword.

_Come on, Tim, keep it together!_

Tim uses his position on the floor to get in a solid kick to Ra’s ribs. Ra’s retaliates with a hilt strike to the cheek bone.

_That’s a fracture._

Time for some distance, or he’s a goner. Tim uses a couple of shuriken as a distraction while he backs away as much as he can.

It’s not enough. Ra’s next slash knocks Tim’s bo from his hand and opens up a line of fire in his side.

By now, two blows to the head in and rapidly losing blood, Tim is starting to feel the effects of the fight. He tries for a strike, but Ra’s dodges easily and takes advantage of his extended arm to dislocate it at the shoulder. 

Tim can barely stand the pain enough to head butt Ra’s in the face and throw him off. He staggers a few steps away and does his best to control the slurring as he taunts Ra’s. 

“Is that all you’ve got?”

This conversation is easy, he’s had it mapped out and memorized from the beginning. Tim hopes that Ra’s can’t tell that he’s not all there. He recounts his emancipation, and the legal moves he’s made to reclaim Wayne Enterprises from Hush, how he’s already  _won_. 

“...Well done,  Detective. ”

The words send a chill through Tim’s body (what isn’t burning in pain, anyway), but he doesn’t have time to dwell before his body makes excruciating contact with the window behind him.

He registers the sound of the crash only distantly, the ringing in his ears from the first kick to the head exponentially worsened by the impact with the glass. He thinks, what little he can, that _the glass is meant to be stronger this high up_.

A blink, and he’s falling. The sensation is almost comforting by now. 

_I did it. I saved the people he loved._

He tries not to think about how that maybe doesn’t include him. It isn’t hard, not with the pounding in his head. 

_I saved everything he worked so hard to build. No compromises. _

So what if it doesn’t include him? He’s dying anyway. He’ll be remembered as a hero at the very least.

_He won’t say anything. He never does. But I know. I know that Bruce will be proud of me. _

That’s all he ever wanted. To save Bruce, to do something he would be proud of. 

_Not a bad day. _

Not a bad day to die. 


	2. And Down Will Come Baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How was Tim supposed to know?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is day 12 of Whumptober: “Don’t Move.”
> 
> It’s shorter than the first chapter and resolves absolutely none of the most inter-character drama. You’re welcome.

The first thing Tim hears when he wakes is the Demon Brat and his ex arguing. The pain in his body intensifies ten-fold and his screaming headache becomes a foghorn.

Then he remembers Ra’s, and sits bolt upright.

“Tim!”

“Are you okay?!”

“What were you thinking, sitting up so fast?!”

“Don’t move, you moron!”

The world spins around him and he puts a hand to his head. He has to know what happened. Is everyone safe?

“Everyone is fine, you dork, just sit still so you don’t hurt yourself.”

Oh. Maybe he said it out loud.

“You sure did, you big lug. You must be more out of it than we thought. Did you hit your head?”

“No...?”

“Sounds like a yes to me, Alfie.”

Alfred checks his pupils as the others pester him with questions that he can’t answer. 

“And your ridiculous team is upstairs as we speak, raiding the refrigerator and raising the dead!” Damian shouts at the ceiling. A faint, “You’re rich, you can take it,” comes right back at him, and he blushes. 

“The Titans are here?” Tim asks, urgently. He needs to talk to them, but he’s not sure he can. After everything that’s happened, is he still welcome there? Was he really ever? Should he even try?

“Yeah, and you can talk to them as soon as you’re cleared by Alfred. Until then, you get to stay right there.”

Dick. Now isn’t that a surprise. Dick hasn’t said a thing to him since he left to find Bruce, not even when he finally had proof. Tim doesn’t want to talk to him, so he says nothing. 

“That was some maneuver kiddo, all that planning and protecting. Just one question, though.”

Tim doesn’t want to hear this, he doesn’t want to hear how he was reckless and stupid and all of the mistakes he made here. He can examine those later, by himself in the safety of his own space.

“How did you know I would catch you?”

The question catches Tim off guard. His mind whirls with questions of his own. How did he know what? Catch him when? When he was kicked out the window? How was he supposed to know he would be kicked out a window anyway? He had a chance to assign himself some backup, but he knew that his own survival wouldn’t be necessary for the success of his plan. 

He wasn’t expecting to survive the fall at all. 

But he can’t tell that to Dick Grayson’s trusting face.

“You’ll always catch me. You’re my brother.”


End file.
